


this is not a play on words

by antikytheras



Series: i made poor life choices and now i have to write genyatta everyday [8]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Journey to the West AU, M/M, but i've gotta retcon baihu into this series somehow, genji stop that's a monk, it's not a dumb fun read like the rest, this one's pretty serious and full of motifs and metaphors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 17:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14337855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antikytheras/pseuds/antikytheras
Summary: A moment to reflect, only so—(a promise, a whisper)—it will be that much easier to forget.





	this is not a play on words

**Author's Note:**

> part 3 of my sanzang/oni series but works as a standalone

There's something oddly comforting about climbing through an open window, one of the many identical holes-like-bullet-wounds hewn into the stone walls of the temple sticking out the side of the mountain, and perching on the very edge of the ice cold ledge. The frost lining the windowsill bites into his fingertips, freezing the sweat from his clammy palms to form a tenous, fragile link that tethers him firmly in place while his legs dangle over a thousand-foot drop into emptiness and nothing.

He lets his feet sway to the whims of the bitter mountain wind as he reflects on the strangeness of his journey, on the monk that he-should-hate but cannot, on the strange static noise crackling in the background when he laughs and smiles, still that same awful demon, and Zenyatta chuckles in reply, still that glowing golden god. It's a bizarre scene; neither of them have changed, or buckled beneath the sheer weight of the chains-or-gold weighing down their selves and each other, and all is as it should be, as they always were and were always meant to be, and yet—

And yet.

His thoughts race on and on, chasing each other like swirling comet-tails leaving cartwheels of stardust, painting the skies of never-ending galaxies so vast and yet so stifling in the ever-yawning stretch of an eternity with no end. He observes, quietly, the constellations that spring into creation, like recompense for the novelty of a story with no satisfying conclusion, and he is content to swim with the current until he can no longer hold on to whatever it is that keeps him afloat. For once he goes easy when he sinks beneath the depths of his muddled, shining thoughts that twist and dart like fish with scales glinting under glorious sunlight. They come, and go, and come, and go.

Until Zenyatta finds him.

'And what,' he asks, softly amused (and yet so-very-afraid), 'do you think you're doing?'

Still staring out into the blackness of night, Genji remembers to breathe, again. Clouds of steam billow from his frozen nose, a mocking imitation of flowing white fur and blue-tinged smoke. 'You said I should try meditation.'

'I did,' he agrees, 'but I hadn't quite envisioned you so far off the ground.'

Genji turns back to find Zenyatta looking up at him thoughtfully. Even here, even now, he stands under the pure white of moonlight, so bright and so piercing that his brown skin turns to stone beneath that ever-watching, unrelenting gaze from above. But Genji's shadow looms like an eclipse threatening to swallow up the light, and even in spite of that Zenyatta ambles forward into the darkness with a fond smile, shedding his armour of stone like a warrior come home.

'How did you get up there?' The wall is smooth-polished rock with no footholds to scrabble at for purchase.

Genji smiles wryly. 'My brother has always been fond of calling me an over-large, overgrown cat.'

Zenyatta laughs, shoulders shaking in a shameful display of self-indulgent humanity free from Heaven's watchful judgement.

'How very appropriate,' Zenyatta breathes out when he regains his composure. But he remains relaxed, abandoning his defenses under the protection offered to him by the bloodstained demon perched alone on an icy ledge.

Genji shrugs, careless, and in a flash the moonlight slips over part of Zenyatta's face, illuminating the idle joy in his eyes for all the world to see.

Yet beneath that easy complacency is a rebellion that burns red-hot in his gaze, angry-and-defiant, but Genji shifts one frozen palm and Heaven's accusation is banished once more.

In one smooth, fluid motion, he lifts himself off the ledge, and for a moment the cliffside is a dizzying promise, but then he's turning and dropping back down to safe, level ground—

(A quiet murmur that could almost be mistaken for a heartbroken, 'Welcome home.')

—and lands silently at Zenyatta's side, from whence he will refuse to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> baihu is the guardian of the west
> 
> sanzang's on a journey to the west
> 
> baihu appears when there is "an emperor of absolute virtue" or "peace throughout the world"
> 
> sanzang's questline is essentially indiana jones if indiana jones were chinese and buddhist
> 
> (banging pots and pans together) wake up sheeple we've got an unwilling boss battle of epic proportions on our hands and you can bet i'm ready to milk that sweet angst for all it's worth
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/_antikytheras)


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